Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across major platforms

This haunting ghostly nightmare movie from cinematographer / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primeval curse when unknowns become victims in a devilish trial. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a intense episode of living through and mythic evil that will reshape genre cinema this cool-weather season. Guided by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and gothic feature follows five unknowns who regain consciousness trapped in a isolated cabin under the aggressive rule of Kyra, a mysterious girl possessed by a antiquated religious nightmare. Ready yourself to be hooked by a visual experience that weaves together raw fear with timeless legends, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a time-honored pillar in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is subverted when the fiends no longer develop from an outside force, but rather inside their minds. This echoes the most terrifying facet of the players. The result is a emotionally raw psychological battle where the story becomes a intense tug-of-war between innocence and sin.


In a wilderness-stricken outland, five teens find themselves sealed under the sinister control and control of a shadowy person. As the youths becomes incapacitated to fight her power, marooned and hunted by entities impossible to understand, they are thrust to deal with their darkest emotions while the time harrowingly strikes toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear deepens and teams crack, forcing each member to reconsider their identity and the idea of decision-making itself. The danger mount with every minute, delivering a terror ride that intertwines ghostly evil with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to channel pure dread, an darkness from ancient eras, influencing human fragility, and examining a curse that dismantles free will when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra meant evoking something unfamiliar to reason. She is blind until the haunting manifests, and that pivot is shocking because it is so raw.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for digital release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing fans globally can be part of this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first trailer, which has garnered over notable views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to international horror buffs.


Experience this unforgettable descent into darkness. Face *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to explore these haunting secrets about free will.


For teasers, making-of footage, and promotions directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across entertainment pages and visit the official digital haunt.





Contemporary horror’s inflection point: 2025 U.S. rollouts blends primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, and IP aftershocks

Kicking off with pressure-cooker survival tales drawn from ancient scripture and onward to franchise returns and surgical indie voices, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified paired with blueprinted year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio majors lay down anchors with established lines, while subscription platforms saturate the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside ancient terrors. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is drafting behind the afterglow of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween holding the peak, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, however this time, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, accordingly 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s schedule lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Booked into mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer fades, the WB camp drops the final chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: 70s style chill, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. The ante is higher this round, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The continuation widens the legend, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, reaching teens and game grownups. It bows in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Then there is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trends to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror returns
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The 2026 genre calendar year ahead: entries, filmmaker-first projects, and also A Crowded Calendar aimed at goosebumps

Dek The upcoming scare cycle loads early with a January traffic jam, and then unfolds through the summer months, and deep into the late-year period, weaving name recognition, creative pitches, and well-timed offsets. Studios with streamers are embracing right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and shareable marketing that frame these offerings into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has emerged as the predictable counterweight in studio lineups, a space that can surge when it resonates and still hedge the drag when it misses. After 2023 re-taught studio brass that responsibly budgeted chillers can shape cultural conversation, the following year sustained momentum with signature-voice projects and sleeper breakouts. The tailwind moved into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and prestige plays confirmed there is room for many shades, from continued chapters to director-led originals that scale internationally. The sum for the 2026 slate is a schedule that presents tight coordination across the industry, with purposeful groupings, a mix of household franchises and original hooks, and a reinvigorated commitment on theatrical windows that increase tail monetization on PVOD and digital services.

Marketers add the category now works like a fill-in ace on the distribution slate. The genre can open on a wide range of weekends, create a clean hook for marketing and vertical videos, and over-index with moviegoers that respond on early shows and hold through the sophomore frame if the offering works. Following a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup demonstrates faith in that playbook. The calendar starts with a stacked January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while carving room for a October build that flows toward spooky season and into the next week. The arrangement also features the continuing integration of specialty arms and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, generate chatter, and roll out at the sweet spot.

A companion trend is brand strategy across connected story worlds and established properties. Studio teams are not just turning out another chapter. They are moving to present ongoing narrative with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a tonal shift or a casting choice that ties a latest entry to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the filmmakers behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating material texture, in-camera effects and location-forward worlds. That alloy gives 2026 a confident blend of familiarity and invention, which is the formula for international play.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with movies two prominent moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character piece. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance suggests a memory-charged bent without replaying the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive built on heritage visuals, character spotlights, and a trailer cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counter-slot, this one will pursue wide appeal through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever drives the conversation that spring.

Universal has three defined bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, somber, and commercial: a grieving man installs an algorithmic mate that unfolds into a murderous partner. The date puts it at the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to reprise uncanny-valley stunts and brief clips that interweaves romance and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His entries are marketed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date lets the studio to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has demonstrated that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy mix can feel deluxe on a middle budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that emphasizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is selling as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build assets around world-building, and monster design, elements that can drive premium format interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Digital platform strategies

Platform strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate window into copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a cadence that enhances both premiere heat and sign-up spikes in the downstream. Prime Video balances licensed titles with worldwide entries and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, October hubs, and collection rows to increase tail value on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival additions, dating horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops go-lives with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints and speedy platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a curated basis. The platform has been willing to take on select projects with prestige directors or A-list packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation intensifies.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is simple: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, refined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical rollout for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception prompts. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using precision theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subs.

Brands and originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate skews toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use marquee value. The challenge, as ever, is staleness. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-inflected take from a emerging director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the package is anchored enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

The last three-year set make sense of the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held news distribution windows did not block a dual release from succeeding when the brand was big. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they shift POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to cross-link entries through personae and themes and to hold creative in the market without lulls.

Technique and craft currents

The director conversations behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued bias toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that emphasizes aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in feature stories and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and drives shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature and environment design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that highlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is busy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid macro-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the tonal variety affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth holds.

Late winter and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

August and September into October leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a late-September window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a minimalist tease strategy and limited asset reveals that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can play the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s machine mate shifts into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss work to survive on a desolate island as the power dynamic shifts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to horror, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting tale that mediates the fear via a young child’s volatile internal vantage. Rating: pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new family anchored to residual nightmares. Rating: forthcoming. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on pure survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and elemental fear. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three hands-on forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

The slot calculus is real. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundscape, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is franchise muscle where it helps, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.